Woo! Here I am, finally, with another chapter! Thank you for your patience!

To my dear reviewers, I love you all. Thank you to Benscy :), IAmNotDeath, drummajorswagg, Emma_Felton4ever, PumpkinHallow4814, MsJacksonMalfoyMellark, dracos lover, granger_ , We Are Padfoot and Prongs, and RowlingsGirls_22

A huge thanks to MadiMalfoyfor being the greatest Beta reader ever!! :D

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or the wonderful world my characters live in, all that is part of the brilliant mind of our personal queen, JK Rowling. I don't own Beauty and the Beast either, that credit goes to either Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve or Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont

Hermione’s POV:

I sighed to myself as I realized I would have to cut my bath short.

“I’ll be right there,” I yelled as I stood and walked up the stairs leading out of the tub. Goosebumps rose over my skin as I stepped out of the water. The air outside of the tub was freezing in comparison to the hot bath water and I shivered before grabbing the towel off the floor and pulling the tab for the drain.

“Take your time,” the voice said calmly. I felt my heart flutter slightly. I didn’t recognize the voice, and though it may have sounded similar to Narcissa, I knew it wasn’t, and it definitely wasn’t Dinky.

I quickly dried off with the towel and tossed it aside as I slipped the robe on, followed by my slippers. As I began to walk away, I realized I should dry my hair some and I bent down to grab the towel before starting to dry my hair and making my way down the stairs.

I tried to think about where my wand was and realized it was sitting next to my bag on my bed. I silently cursed myself as I took a step into my room.

The woman who I assumed belonged to the voice was standing to the left when I walked in, trailing her hand along the bookcase.

“Umm... hello?” I squeaked out, sounding as nervous as I felt.

The woman turned around and I dropped the towel I had been holding.

“Hello, Hermione,” she said, smiling at me. I nearly cringed as she did so; her smile had revealed a row of yellowed and dead teeth.

The woman standing before me was one of the most grotesque people I’d ever seen. She had a large growth that took up nearly the entire left side of her face, making it so that her eye was nearly swollen shut. The right side of her face, however, was saggy, her lips, eye, and cheek pulled down as if gravity had kicked into overdrive.

I opened my mouth to ask who she was and her business being in my bedroom, my heart racing at the fact that she could very well be a Death Eater, but she held up a hand as if to silence me.

“No questions just yet, dearie. But, I must warn you now, I will not be telling you who I am.”

She smiled and sat down in a chair that I hadn’t even noticed was there before. I looked at her; surprised to see that not only was there a chair, but a table and another identical chair across the table from her. Her eyes were glued to my face, as if searching for a reaction.

“Why not?” I asked, finally finding my voice. She laughed and shook her head, another smile revealing those horrid teeth.

She stood up from the chair and walked towards me, still smiling. “That was a question, dearie.”

“But. I-” I began but she cut me off and I found it nearly impossible to open my mouth as she waved her hand to silence me. My heart began racing even faster.

Was she going to hurt me? Or kill me? What if Draco came up here later and found me dead? Then he would feel like even more of a failure.

“Don’t you worry, I have no intentions of hurting you,” she said, as if reading my mind. “I’m afraid that would rather defeat the purpose.”

She waved her hand again and I found myself able to open my mouth once more, “Purpose?” I managed to squeak out, though I hadn’t actually meant to speak aloud.

The woman merely smiled at me and walked by me, and starting from the bookshelf, began to make her way around the room. She occasionally stopped and picked something up or trailed her fingers along something, making me feel even less at ease.

I stood frozen as I watched the woman walk around my room, touching things and talking to herself as she went. She stopped in front of my dresser, and turned to me with a smile on her face.

“Well well… isn’t he sweet?” she asked, gesturing to the rose and causing me to blush. I’d just thought of it as a simple gesture of making me feel welcome, but maybe it wasn’t.

I tried to play it off as if I hadn’t noticed myself blushing and muttered a, “I suppose so.”

“Draco, love, what’s wrong?” she asked, concern etched into every feature on my mother’s face. She’d been looking older and older with each passing day, the weight of Voldemort and the Death Eaters crushing down on her, I didn’t need to make matters worse though I knew most of her concern was regarding me.

“N- nothing,” I said, my voice still shaky from the encounter with X.

She looked at my face for a few moments before cooly sayig, “Don’t lie to your mother, I thought I heard someone in there speaking with you.”

“It was nothing, mother. Let’s focus on dinner,” I said, offering my arm to her. She hesitated for a moment before taking it; I could feel her nervousness radiating from every pore.

“Mother, you need to calm down, it’ll all be fine,” I whispered and she gave me a stiff nod.

We walked down to the main dining room in complete silence, both of us clearly dreading the night ahead of us. This was the first time that everyone was gathering and from what father had hinted at, it was the first of many to come.

I walked mother to her seat and pulled her chair out before going over to my spot and sitting down. I was completely terrified but I couldn’t let the others know that, they did nothing but feed off the fear of others and I wasn’t about to give them an advantage. Instead, I focused on clearing my mind of all thought and putting the things that mattered in the back of my mind, particularly Hermione and X. The last thing I needed was Voldemort getting wind of any of those thoughts.

A few moments later, the door burst open and Voldemort walked in. I took a slight breath in and tried to cover it up by pretending to sneeze.

Voldemort made his way to the head of the table and smiled at everyone, looking quite pleased to have a table full of his “closest followers”.

“How touching… to see you all here. It has been…. so long,” he said, smiling once more. Goosebumps rose over my skin and I was thankful for the suit I was wearing so he couldn’t see them. His so-called smile was easily one of the most unsettling things I’d ever seen and I couldn’t wait to see Hermione’s- STOP IT DRACO! Don’t think about that now.

My mother sat across and a little to the left of me and she looked up after Voldemort had spoken, giving me a reassuring smile. I did my best to return the favor before looking back to Voldemort, who was paying absolutely no attention to me.

“We have much to discuss,” he hissed before one of the house elves pulled out his chair and he sat down.

The house elves poured into the room, most avoiding all eye contact with those who sat near the head of the table, Voldemort mainly, which was so unlike them. They brought in plate after plate of food though no one seemed to want to touch anything.

After they’d all bowed and left the room, Voldemort grabbed something off the nearest plate and put it on his own, looking around as no one moved to get their own food.

“Well, we best all eat, we’re going to be here a while discussing things, wouldn’t want to be interrupted by growling stomachs, now would we?” he said dryly, and everyone hesitantly grabbed one thing or another and cautiously began eating, never taking more than Voldemort himself.

This was going to be a long dinner.

So??! Let me know what you think of the chapter and feed that shiny box down there!! :D